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# A Walk in the Woods
October 20 2022
Written by Liz Amsden.
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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Every now and then Angelenos need to lift their heads above the grime that is more in our City Hall than in our air these days, and watch the sun rise or a monarch butterfly sip nectar from a milkweed flower.
It’s generally easier to do so by prying ourselves out of our daily rut and getting out of Los Angeles – if only for a few days. Or even a few hours.
A hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. Taking a first wave on a board at the beach. Just so long as the never-ending litany of oughtta-do, gotta-do obligations are left in abeyance.
Too many people had too little to do when the pandemic first came crashing down on our world… and too many now are scrambling to catch up as so much in our daily lives comes back online.
Talk about keeping up with the Joneses, we are now weighted down with all the political foofaraw – local, national and overseas. We also have vestiges of the pandemic dragging down our souls, aspects of psychological trauma that are difficult to shake if we continue down the same rutted paths.
So, enjoy my photos from a weekend in Vermont and go make some happy memories of your own.
Even if in Los Angeles the final months of the year are not as gray and grim as further north, a change of scenery can lift your heart and allow joy to reenergize your life.
And to get out of my own rut, I’m abandoning my usual 1200-word opus format and keeping this one short and sweet to go with the pretty pictures.
Have a wonderful day!
*(Liz Amsden is a regular contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)*
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